These 18 Tech and Startups Trends Will Emerge in 2014

December 19, 2013

1:51 pm

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In the world of natural selection, it’s not the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, or even the smartest that wins. It’s those who can best adapt to their environment. The same can be said for business. Blockbuster clung to an old model, giving way to Netflix’s domination. The newspaper, book store, and music worlds have been flipped on their head, rendering a new wave of industry leaders.

Change brings about winners and losers. Winning not only requires an understanding of the current landscape, but what it will look like in the weeks, months, and years to come. To help you win, I reached out to a group of entrepreneurs and thought leaders to share their best predictions for the tech and startup worlds in 2014. Their insights are below.

Smart Everything

The Evolution of Startup Funding

I think we will see in 2014 the intersection between fundraising with the tools of the internet like crowdfunding and the traditional players in the capital raising process like investment banks. Traditional firms that played a role in the capital raising process will find their own ways to provide new investing opportunities to their wealthy clients. For better or worse, they will want to provide venture like tech investment opportunities to their wealthy clients for asset diversification.

Genetic Biotech Makes Headlines

Genetic biotech is the research area advancing most quickly today. Labs are combining stem cells with 3D printing to create working heart valves. At will, they’re switching off the genes responsible for diseases like Huntington’s. Huge potential.

Fewer IPOs

I predict the movement away from a quick sale and instead towards building meaningful long term ventures. The Facebook IPO did not go too well, Twitter had hiccups while Snapchat won’t sell, even for $3 billion. The true reason for starting a company has never been speed to sale, and together with societal moves towards meaningful jobs, food and overall lives, this seems like a logical progression.

Apps Continue to Dominate

It’s no secret that enterprises have begun to adopt tablets with the same enthusiasm as consumers. As the gap in performance between PCs and tablets narrows and form factor options proliferate, the distinction between tablets and PCs will become less important, and it will be more about the apps.

More Bootstrapping

What I’m seeing among entrepreneurs in my market (Denver) is that there’s lots of investment money still sitting on the sidelines and lots of entrepreneurs not willing to wait for the money. Unless you are in a heavily capitalized tech market (like San Fran/Silicon Valley), there’s simply not much VC money in many parts of the U.S. And even when there is, many startup entrepreneurs aren’t willing to to give up a massive chunk of equity – and thus control – in their company; in many cases, the trade-off isn’t there yet. So we should expect to see lots of startups continue to bootstrap through 2014 and either fund from within, engage in sweat equity arrangements or go the friends-and-family funding route.

Closed Social Networks

Lots of brands are trying to capitalize on the trend of the younger generation showing a preference for private and closed social networks for sharing content. Apps like Snapchat and Kik are becoming extremely popular with a younger demographic and now we’re seeing major social networks like Twitter and Instagram starting to offer more private sharing features – as illustrated by Instagram’s direct message feature, unveiled just last week. I think 2014 will result in more platforms looking to advance their offerings, and more brand new platforms, as users seek to have richer conversations with fewer numbers of people.

Tandem Startups

Most startups will be born out of the influx of co-workspaces and I foresee that this constant stimulus will turn into the birth of more serial entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs will have multiple startups simultaneously – ‘Tandem Startups’ could be a new term for 2014.

Clinging to Privacy

As the economy heats up, startups that help us maintain what little privacy we even still believe we have will be hot. Especially in the hiring space. We’ll need companies like Follr to maintain our digital identity and help craft the story we want to share.

Rise of VoIP

There will continue to be a slow rise in voice communication with the use of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) relative to cellular calling. VoIP allows voice communication through an IP data network as opposed to through a phone company’s network.

– Michael Unetich, President at TIP Solutions

Emergence of M2M

M2M: Machine-to-machine communications are at the heart of the Internet of Things and wearable tech. We’re rocketing toward a world of smart objects aware of their neighboring objects, and able to react.

Alternate Digital Payments Continued Growth

Bitcoin and digital payments aren’t going away. Bitcoin will meet sales tax requirements in 2014. As things stand today, the sales tax laws loosely say bitcoin transactions are subject to sales taxes. As bitcoin popularity grows, states will get more explicit that bitcoin transactions follow the same laws as other currency like $USD and the rules will become clearer for compliance.

Increased Focus on Android

Quality Over Quantity

Brands have realized quality is more important than quantity when it comes to content. Startups need to plan on creating quality content for the right channels, instead of striving for off-target opportunities just to get their name out there.

You might think that video games are the last thing for the government to get worked up about, but a new proposal against loot boxes, a virtual item that contains an unknown prize, is currently in the works, and could radically upend the gaming industry.

Apple has announced an update to its keyboard and an extension to the keyboard repair program, which has been ongoing for several years, after many users complained about stuck keys and mis-presses. The ongoing issues have angered even the most loyal Apple fans.

The trade war between China and the US has been heated in recent weeks, with a lot of the repercussions falling on Huawei. Fortunately for them, the US government as provided a 90-day license reprieve to continue to do business with US companies for a limited time.

When Zach Davis isn't getting lost in the mountains, he is hustling from Boulder, CO as Tech Cocktail's Director of Marketing. He is the author of Appalachian Trials, a book chronicling the mindset necessary for thru-hiking all 2,181 miles of the Appalachian Trail, a feat he accomplished in 2011. Zach is a green tea enthusiast, die-hard Chicago sports fan, and avid concert-goer. Follow Zach on Twitter: @zrdavis.